Facilities, school safety, rail and A96 Dualling

Lack of Facilities in KintoreIn the last issue of Kintore Konnect, we talked about a lack of facilities in Kintore and what did the Community think. Obviously, there are some facilities that private businesses need to set up for example, a petrol station, however, other suggestions have been a skate park, men’s shed, art and recreational classes, tennis courts and gym.

Over the next few months, the community council would like to hear views from the residents of Kintore on what facilities should be available. This process will go forward into a report and possible funding will be identified including applying to Aberdeenshire Council.

It is hoped that this initiative will be supported by the community as to do nothing will result in no improvement of facilities. Kintore is now the tenth largest town in Aberdeenshire in its own right with a substantial business centre within its business parks that are home to a many major companies.

We have a fantastic amount of community minded individuals who give their valuable time to run various groups so to come together and unite for facilities in Kintore, so much could be done. Recently this was proved when Kintore fundraising team asked for support to raise funds to replace the Christmas lights. At the start it was perceived as a huge challenge but monies in excess of the amount initially required was achieved in less than 3 months. Please get involved by giving your views.

School safetyCllr Reid is still trying to get railings installed at Kintore Primary School for pupil safety.

Kintore Station/Network Rail-UpdateIn addition to works in respect of building Kintore station, works will commence in May for the dualling of the track and details of rail closures are below.

The amended bus timetable will be published on the ScotRail website very soon allowing members of the public to check their journeys ahead of travel. Over the coming weeks, Network Rail will communicate directly with communities through leaflets and letters and public meetings are detailed below.

Tuesday 5th March – public open afternoon at the BAM Compound in InverurieMonday 11th March – public town hall event, 6pm at Inverurie Town HallTuesday 2nd April – public open afternoon at the BAM Compound in Inverurie

Fountain in Kintore SquareWorks should be finished by end of February 2019. The fountain will then operate between May and September.

Snow Warden Opportunity In our last article, we highlighted the Snow Warden scheme where the council actively support groups of volunteers who wish to offer their spare time to clear snow form publicly-adopted footways and footpaths. There have been some take up in Kintore but should anyone else wish to apply details of the information pack is still available on Aberdeenshire Council’s website.

A96 DuallingIf you are dualling an existing road, you would expect the upgraded road to follow a similar route.

However, one option for the A96 Dualling seems to have lost its way. The blue-green-violet route veers away from the A96, crossing the Don Valley and carving its way through 1,769 acres of quality farmland, splitting 63 farms in the process.

Why? To get to a flyover in a rural location near Lochter.

The rationale, apparently, is:

to open up land to the north of Inverurie for development

to entice traffic from the A947 to take the long way round, joining and increasing traffic into Aberdeen from Kintore. (The aim being to delay the need to upgrade the A947.)

What does this cross-country route mean?

The extra distance would add some 2,400 miles and around £360 more fuel to an annual commute from Huntly.

The loss of farmland would take at least £760,000 of agricultural output out of our economy each year.

Start a rush of development for the rural area north and east of Inverurie and Kintore.

But, for Kintore, probably the biggest concern would be that the blue-green-violet option would add more traffic onto the already busy A96 into Aberdeen.

As an upgrade of the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen, it really does seem as though the blue-green-violet option has lost its way.

Inconsiderate Parking/Dog foulingOnce again we have received complaints in respect of above and we would urge you to park with consideration so as not to cause difficulties for other residents or the emergency services. The distress that is caused by dog mess on our payments is massive. Please pick up after your dog and put in the nearest dog bin. If you have any photographic evidence of dog fouling, this can be sent to the dog warden, details on Aberdeenshire website

PC Steve MiddletonAt our last meeting, we said goodbye to our community policeman, PC Steve Middleton (pictured holding his certificate with Aberdeenshire Councillors and members of the community council).

Steve has worked tirelessly in our community over the years and after 30 years is now retiring. We were delighted to give Steve a Certificate of Appreciation in honour of his services to our community.